Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, for her sixth consecutive budget, announced a new housing scheme for the middle class and plans to build 2 crore houses in the next 5 years under the rural housing plan, developers from Navi Mumbai do not see any major decision in the real estate sector. Haresh Chheda, the former president of the Builders Association of Navi Mumbai says that the budget has targeted the masses due to the parliamentary election due in March-April. “There two factors from the central government that affect the sector. The first one is GST and the second one is interest rate. Since there is no change in the GST, there will be no impact in the real estate sector,” said Chheda, adding that the rest of decisions are taken at the state level.
However, he added that there was a focus on railways and it will be important to see the details of the decision. “If any major decision regarding the railways for Navi Mumbai and Mumbai is taken, there will be an affect,” said Chheda. Meanwhile, Domnic Romell, President of CREDAI-MCHI, stated that the vision of ‘Housing for all’ gained momentum with the announcement of a new housing scheme for the middle class and plans to build 2 crore houses in the next 5 years under the rural housing plan. “Initiatives like rooftop solarisation are expected to reduce electricity bills, encouraging middle-class investment in affordable housing. In the spirit of the year of Nari Shakti, schemes like Lakhpati Didis are motivating women Self Help Groups (SHGs). CREDAI-MCHI proposes an increase in tax exemption in interest payments for housing loans in case of women home buyers to further empower women, making homeownership affordable and accessible to a larger section of women home buyers making it a reality,” he said.
Manohar Shroff, Senior Vice President of MCHI Credai Navi Mumbai said that they have not expected much in the interim budget. “As expected, there is no major decision for the real estate sector. We can expect in the post election budget which will be a full-fledged budget,” said Shroff.